The idea would be one of the other things that would be discussed by close to 3,000 delegates from Catholic-ran schools in the country, which would mainly tackle and listen to the best practices of the mission schools in troubled spots in Mindanao as they deal with justice and peace issues.
Fr. Gregorio L. Banaga Jr., president of Adamson University and president of the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP), said the use of technology would be the key element that distinguished the basic mission of the pioneers and founders of Catholic schools when they established the schools in missionary areas. He said that the theme of the convention, “Building a Culture of Peace-Shaping the Vision, Living the Dream,” would coincide with the UN declaration of Sept. 21 as a Day of Peace. He said the theme “would also serve as a renewal for us to live the commitment 70 years ago of our founders of the schools to teach Catholic education.”
Banaga told a press briefing ON Wednesday at the Royal Mandaya Hotel here that “it is a fast changing world, and we would like to be more creative today.” He said the schools would study “how to use technology to teach more effectively the Catholic faith.”
“This technology was not present 70 years ago, and we would encourage our member-schools to explore how they can use it to enhance teaching,” he said.
In the next five years, he said, “We would be making our programs meet this challenge.” He specifically pointed at the trend of some schools, like De La Salle University and Saint Paul-Pasig, at already tapping the e-book, by using the electronic tablets, although Sr. Merceditas Ang of Saint Paul, said that “ethical issues of piracy and downloading without infringing on the e-rights of publication companies have to be settled also.”
Both Ang and Bro. Narciso Syloria Erquiza, president of the De La Salle University, suggested that small schools and even other private schools “should concentrate on improving their basic education skills based on the traditional book system if they find it expensive and impractical to acquire the technology.”
“Through this, it would be better,” he said.
Jesuit Fr. Antonio Moreno, president of Ateneo de Zamboanga, said that the convention would try to collect the best practices of many mission schools in dealing with justice and peace issues, as well as to learn how these schools tested their “Catholicity” in this part of the country where Islamic fundamentalism was also being watched closely by government authorities.
Moreno said that members would listen to the various best practices of the schools in many troubled spots in Mindanao.
He said that its 1,345 member-schools, many of them mission and small schools in the countryside, would want to be briefed “on the effective ways at which they, including the CEAP, would be able to articulate the practices in building a culture of peace in the country.”
